Salute 51 recovery phase

 As I write this it is the day after Salute 51. What a day. It was definitely a successful day, traders are reporting they have had successful takings, the Warlords ran out of freebie miniatures for their goodie bags, demonstration gamers report having spent the entire day talking themselves hoarse chatting to visitors. The Distinguished Opponent and I spent most of the day there, I think we didn't leave until gone 4pm and I know there are things I didn't get to see. (We were both flagging however at this point and needed to head home to soak our poor feet.) I am sure the show is certainly wildly different from previous years back in the heady days of pipe smoking, suit wearing wargamers but it certainly is not diminishing. I give credit to South London Warlords for allowing these changes to occur, the show is more family friendly with certainly a more diverse crowd of people in attendance. If anything I think the show would be failing if it didn't change with the times. The inclusion of things like panel talks and the showing of the film "Art in Miniature" are a welcome change to the format. On the subject of the film, Distinguished Opponent and I did buy tickets to watch said film. (Only a pound so hardly breaking the bank.) The film did ask some interesting questions and there were some excellent personalities involved, I did find it a bit vexing that towards the end though as the focus seemed to mostly be on the theory that 3D printing is the future of the hobby and Heroforge are the best way to do this. A conjecture I do not agree with when there are still plenty of thriving companies dealing in casting metal, resin and plastic. Apart from that though it was enjoyable.

Look, my goblin in a cabinet! (One of five people to paint the same model!)

Once again we had fun at the ten minute painting challenge. A great ten minutes well spent, trying desperately to put some kind of shade and highlight on a tiny little halfling. It didn't help that I also seemed to have the shakes in my hands from carrying my shopping loot around for the day. I did try something that resembled tartan on the model, but I'm not sure it comes across as such.

My other entry safe at home on display in the printer tray, next to my ten minute halfling.

I entered two models in the main painting competition this year. A competition that I am sure had twice as many entries as last year. I didn't have any success, not even a compensatory "you've made the cut" card, but that was hardly surprising considering the extremely high standard of entrants this year. I blame GW for not hosting their Golden Demon competition in the UK this year, all the good painters needed somewhere to flex their skills.(Certainly not the fact that I probably just don't paint as well.) Well, if it exposes more people to the hobby outside of the monopoly GW have, it can only be a good thing. 

There were a ridiculous number of entries in the "paint last years free model" category.

I, unfortunately missed meeting up with fellow bloggers at lunchtime, due to my ticket for the film clashing with the time, but I did manage to catch up and chat with a few people at the show that I normally only chat with online. I did see a couple of Youtubers out and about too (once again only a good thing to give the show exposure) but decided they didn't need me interrupting their day. (Especially the one that I spotted in the queue at the beginning that I suspect wasn't properly awake yet.) I will mention one Youtuber though, if you want to see photos of all the gaming tables at the show (I genuinely just ran out of time to get around them all) I can recommend once again a visit to Big Lee's Youtube channel here.

My own version of Rogue Hobby's Fishing Goblin, back home.

Overall for myself, a successful day out, for the Warlords I suspect, a successful show that has moved with the times to continue to thrive. It can only be a good thing to boost this hobby and ensure we continue to be able to enjoy this excellent pastime.